Today, during our Math time, I introduced Shake the Beans (3).  I like to introduce it as close to Dr. Seuss Day as I can because I use red and white for my colors.  I don’t know where this game came from, where it got its start, but I just love it and we will be playing it pretty much everyday from here on to the end of the year.  I could not find my sheets for adding to 3 and 4, so I had to make new ones:

shakethebeans3

shakethebeans4

To play you need beans that have been spray painted on one side (I use red).  If you are playing STB 3 you would need 3 beans.  

I have the children color the first number in the number sentence red so that they can visually see what number needs to be red.  They shake the beans and separate red from white.  I then ask them to remember that RED ALWAYS COMES FIRST! and we repeat this over and over.  They look at their beans and tell me the number they have red and then the number they have white.  They then need to locate the correct number sentence.  So if you had 2 red and 1 white you would need to find the number sentence that said 2+1=3 (and the 2 would have been colored red).  They write that number sentence in the box above the number sentence and continue until they get 1-2 winners (or columns to the top).

It’s much easier to explain in person so if you have any questions or I’ve confused you terribly, let me know! 😉

Kristen 🙂